1. Man Machine Interfaces (Ser. No. 08/290,516)
2. Touch TV and other Man Machine Interfaces (Ser. No. 08/496,908)
3. Systems for Occupant Position Sensing, Ser. No. 08/968,114
4. Target holes and corners U.S. Ser. Nos. 08/203,603, and 08/468,358
5. Useful Man Machine interfaces and applications, Prov. Appl. filed Aug. 21, 1998
6. Vision Target based assembly, U.S. Ser. Nos. 08/469,429, 08/469,907, 08/470,325, 08/466,294
7. Stereo camera Based input to Computer systems (new provisional application)
8. Picture Taking method and apparatus(new provisional application)
9. Methods and Apparatus for Man Machine Interfaces and Related Activity (new provisional application
10. Camera Based Man-Machine Interfaces new Provisional Patent Application, filed July 1999
The copies of the disclosure of the above referenced applications are incorporated herein by reference.
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to simple input devices for computers, particularly, but not necessarily, intended for use with 3-D graphically intensive activities, and operating by optically sensing object or human positions and/or orientations. The invention in many preferred embodiments, uses real time stereo photogrammetry using single or multiple TV cameras whose output is analyzed and used as input to a personal computer, typically to gather data concerning the 3D location of parts of, or objects held by, a person or persons.
This continuation application seeks to provide further detail on useful embodiments for computing. One embodiment is a keyboard for a laptop computer (or stand alone keyboard for any computer) that incorporates digital TV cameras to look at points on, typically, the hand or the finger, or objects held in the hand of the user, which are used to input data to the computer. It may also or alternatively, look at the head of the user as well.
Both hands or multiple fingers of each hand, or an object in one hand and fingers of the other can be simultaneously observed, as can alternate arrangements as desired.
2. Description of Related Art
My referenced copending applications incorporated herein by reference discuss many prior art references in various pertinent fields, which form a background for this invention.